Paralysis
by Phantom88
Summary: It's been about a month since the war with Gaea ended and Nico still hasn't gotten used to camp. Just as everything is settling down, Nico learns about a mysterious underworld creature killing off residents of a village. With Will tagging along he will have to find out why the creature is interesting in mortal beings. Solangelo. I'm rating it T for later violence, First PJO story.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! This is my first HOO fanfic so it'll have some mistakes in it. I hope you enjoy it! I'll be writing from Nico's point of view. I don't own the PJO or Hoo series.

Getting attacked by a hellhound was _not_ Nico's favorite way to start a day. Well, it's not like he was attacked, more enthusiastically tackled. He walked into camp after a particularly long research trip when Mrs. O'Leary had leaped from the nearby shadows squishing Nico underneath her huge weight. Her tail waved wildly and she covered Nico's face with slobbery kisses.

"Mrs. O'Leary!" Nico snapped pushing her off of him a scowl played on his face. The large hellhound sat back on her haunches still panting, a dog-like smile across her muzzle. Nico sighed and scratched behind her ear, he couldn't stay mad at her for long. He smiled and continued walking along the trail that would get him back to camp, the large hound walking along beside him. Ever since the war with Gaea he had been living at camp in the Hades cabin and he still wasn't quite used to it.

The camp came into view as Nico quickened his pace. His stomach growled as the scent of food wafted from the dining pavilion. Before he ran over to get his meal he turned back to Mrs. O'Leary, ignoring the growling of his stomach "I'll come and play with you later." He promised scratching her ears again "Promise." She barked loudly and licked his face once again, turning and disappearing back into the forest. Sighing he rubbed the dog spit off his face and walked into the dining pavilion.

The pavilion was filled with demigods eating and chatting. Nico quietly snatched some food from the table, throwing some into the fire. He glanced around, panicked, he didn't want to be seen by-

"Nico!" a voice stopped him mid-step, he turned stiffly to see Will Solace making his way through the crowd to where Nico was trying to make his escape. Nico swore under his breath and scowled at the teen walking up to him "What do you want Solace?" he snapped irritably "I have work to do."

"Not until you eat." Will said, grabbing Nico by the arm "Doctors orders." He pulled Nico to the Hades table and shoved him onto the bench and sitting down across from him.

"I was going to eat in my cabin." Nico growled stabbing into the meat with his fork "And you're not even supposed to be sitting here."

Will rolled his eyes "Where have you been?" he asked, completely ignoring the looks they were getting.

"You should be glad Chiron isn't here." Nico continued, ignoring Wills question as he did Nico's.

The sat there for a minute, both glaring at each other neither willing to look away. Finally after another minute of silence Will wavered and looked away running his fingers through his golden hair and turning back to face the son of Hades "Answer my question, where have you been?"

Still scowling Nico stabbed another slice of meat "I've been doing research in a bunch of different places." He finally said, stuffing the meat into his mouth.

Will tilted his head curiously "What have you been researching?" his eyes hardened for a second "You haven't been shadow traveling have you?"

"No," Nico said sarcastically "Doctors orders." mimicking Wills voice, he turned back to face him"I actually haven't had to so you don't need to worry." Before Will could say anything else Nico stood and turned to walk out of the pavilion "If you'll excuse me I have to go and fulfill a promise."

Will jumped up and followed him "Wait, what have you been looking at?" he huffed when Nico ignored him "Nico!"

_'Just ignore him and he'll go away.'_ Nico kept telling himself _'Just focus on finding Mrs. O'Leary'_ He didn't have to search far. As soon as he stepped into the forest a large black mastiff jumped out at him, and instead of getting flattened like earlier Nico side stepped just in time for Will to run to his side, and get flattened by the hellhound.

"Gods!" Will swore, struggling to move "Nico, help!"

Smirking Nico clapped his hands and Mrs. O'Leary walked up to him.

"You knew that was going to happen!" Will growled, aggravated "That's cold Di Angelo, you didn't even give me a warning!"

Nico gave him a look of false hurt "She must just dislike you." He stroked the hellhound fur, a smile flashing across his lips "I don't control what she does."

Will scowled at him and brushed off the dirt and fur covering his clothes "You made a promise with a dog?"

"Of course." Nico pulled out the metal shield from some bushes and threw it across the open area "She likes to play Frisbee." Will shook his head and watched Nico and Mrs. O'Leary play dropping the argument, he didn't want to argue with Nico with a little too friendly hellhound running around.

Just as their game of Frisbee was winding down the sound of hooves against the dirt caught Nico's attention, he turned and spotted Chiron. As it turned out turning away from the ecstatic hellhound was a bad idea. She bounded up to him and gave him a friendly nudge from behind with her powerful nose, sending him flying through the air "Oh my go-" his voice was cut off as he clashed with Will, both of them tumbling into the dirt.

Will stumbled as Nico rammed into him, both of them skidding a few feet across the forest ground. As the cloud of dust cleared around them they both sat up, banging heads. They both reeled back, swearing loudly.

Nico opened one eye, his hand massaging his bruised forehead. He looked at Will and laughed out loud. Will looked at him surprised, never once had he heard the son of Hades laugh. "You look like you fell through a pine tree." Nico said, pointing to Wills hair.

Will scowled and started taking out the pine needles in his hair, trying to cover the blush that was creeping along his face "At least I don't look like I fell off a Pegasus."

Nico looked down at himself and stopped laughing. His clothes where crumpled together and coated with dirt "Sh- Shut up Solace!"

After they had sorted themselves out Nico palmed his forehead, making the bruise spark with pain again "I forgot!" he sighed "I need to tell Chiron about the-" he stopped mid-sentence when Will looked over at him.

Will looked at him skeptically, waiting for him to continue.

Nico just shut his mouth and walked the way Chiron had gone, ignoring Will as he fell into step beside him.

When they had finally found Chiron Nico had explained what he had been researching.

"A small village has been attacked for the past several days, their livestock and children have gone missing, even some adults have been found dead." He placed his hand on his sword handle and continued "Normally I would just dismiss this as a wolf but there is something that worries me, as soon as I entered the village is could feel and immense underwordly power coming from the woods." he looked at Mrs. O'Leary "I think it's a hellhound."

Chiron nodded "I think you should check this out." He looked at Nico "Normally a hellhound wouldn't attack a mortal village, I want you to find out why."

Will, who had just been listening until know piped up "He can't go alone!" he looked back and forth between them "What if something happens."

Nico rolled his eyes "I'll be fine, I'm good with this kind of thing." He looked to Chiron, silently begging him to let him go alone.

"I think Will is right." Chiron started, much to Nico's dismay "You can go with Nico." He turned to Will "Your knowledge about medicine may come in handy.

And just like that, Nico had a new traveling companion.

How was it? I felt like Chiron was a bit out of characters but I couldn't fix it. Please comment! I'd like to know what you liked and disliked, or if you want me to continue this. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the late update! Thanks to all of you who commented :D I hope you like this chapter, ima introduce someone new ;)

As much as Nico didn't want to admit it, he was glad to have Will come along. They had left the camp behind and shadow-traveled to the town where the hellhound had been spotted. As soon as they had gotten there their ride had abandoned them. When the landed in a clearing near the main entrance Mrs O'Leary had frozen up, her eyes darting around, and her ears perked. She sniffed the air and was gone in a second.

Will looked at Nico a confused look crossing his face "What was that?" he asked, turning back to the shadows where the large hellhound had disappeared.

"I don't know…" Nico muttered, shrugging it off he started to walk towards the main entrance "I bet she doesn't like the scent of the other hound, lets head to the village." He walked through the thick undergrowth before Will could say anything.

As soon as they entered the small town everything went quiet. A group of children that had been playing was ushered into the housed by worried looking adults, others watched from windows and whispered. Nico continued along the main street, his eyes wandering from house to house, he was about to go knock on a door when he heard his voice being called "Nico!" looking over he saw Lucy, a girl about his age, running towards him. She smiled brightly and jumped at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Will grunted in surprise automatically glaring at the girl.

"You came back!" she chirped, hugging the breath out of him "I knew you'd help us!"

She let go of him and yelled "Father! He came back! I told you he would!" as her words echoed around the silent village a tired looking man came from one of the large houses, he closed the door behind him and walked up to the small group.

"I'm glad to see that." He said, his voice raspy "I was hoping that you would be able to help us with our wolf problem." He turned and waved at them to enter the house "Come. We will talk inside." He quickly entered, followed soon by Lucy.

"What's going on?" Will asked, still scowling at the girls disappearing back "Why do these people know you?"

Nico laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head "Well… when I first came here the townspeople were worried about the 'wolf' so they didn't allow any visitors." He paused looking around, then lowering his voice "I kinda told them that I was studying wolves and could help them."

Will rolled his eyes "So you lied to get info."

"Technically it's not lying." Nico snapped, slapping Wills' shoulder "If you think about it I am studying what's causing their problem." Before Will could reply he followed the two others into the house.

They were led into a small family room "Sit." Lucy offered waving them to the couch. When Nico sat down she was quick to claim the spot beside him, causing Will to huff irritably and sit on one of the chairs across from the couch.

"Has anything else happened?" Nico asked, looking at Lucy's' father.

The older man rubbed his hands together nervously, his eyes flittering across the room landing on anything but Nico "The wolf has taken three more sheep, and one of our dogs." He stopped and gathered himself "And one of our children."

Nico just stared at him, thinking of a way to react "Oh… well did you figure out where it lives?"

"We know that it lives in the southern part of the forest." Lucy said, pulling a map out and laying it against the table in the middle of the room. She pointed to a spot on the map "This is the village," she made a line across the map to a grove of dark green trees "We darkened the map where the wolf lives, it's in the thickest part of the forest."

Nico nodded leaning forward to study the map. Lucy leaned against him, pointing out another spot on the map. Will glared at the movement and stood, forcing himself between them "Let me see." He said, pushing Lucy away a little too hard. Lucy glared back at him.

"Careful!" Nico snapped as he moved to make room "We don't want to damage the map." Why Will had sat there was a complete mystery but Nico didn't have time to think about his actions. Shaking the thoughts away he went back to studying the map "Would it be alright if we took this with us?" he asked, looking to Lucy's father.

Nodding he took the map from Nico and carefully rolled it up.

"You should wait until nightfall." Lucy said, shoving aside Will and walking up to Nico "It's most active then." She smiled sweetly at Nico and wrapped her arm around his "I'll show you around, last time you didn't get to see the whole village." Without waiting for his reply she drug him towards the door, pausing only to look back and smirk at Will.

Nico honestly didn't know what was going on. As soon as he had left the house Will had come up and snatched Lucy's hand, saying something about wanting to see the sheep. Nico had ended up walking behind them as they continually bickered about the most useless things.

"This sheep is an_ ash_ black, not grey!" Lucy argued, waving to one of the nearby sheep.

"No, ash black is more like that one." Will shot back, pointing to a sheep further out.

"Does this really matter?" Nico asked after his patience finally ran out "Does the color of the nearest sheep really help the case?" he expected them both to shrug and start helping but they both looked back at him and snapped "YES!" and just like that they were back to the argument.

Nico stared at them, dumbfounded. How could two people have a debate on the color of a sheep? Sighing he shook his head and continued along the path, they probably wouldn't notice his absence in time to catch up with him. He walked along the path that would lead him to the southern exit, it didn't take long to reach it "This really is a small village." Nico sighed to himself "What do they have against eachother?"

As soon as he entered the forest a dark feeling came over him. It wasn't like a gut-feeling it literally felt like a weight had been added to his shoulders. The air had turned dry and the shadows danced around him like ghosts. Shadows shouldn't have scared him, he was the son of Hades after-all, but these shadows seemed… alive.

The sound of a scream turned his attention away from the shadows. He sprinted along the faint path, the over grown branches whipping his face and arms. The scream sounded again, this time from his left. Turning sharply he broke through the bushed and into a small clearing, he automatically wished he hadn't. It was a mess. Blood splattered the clearing and a vaguely human shape writhed in a pool of the scarlet liquid.

It was a woman. Her legs were bend at unnatural angles and her arm was nowhere in sight. He neck had a nasty gash along the side, blood poured from the multiple wounds. The scent of metal was heavy as blood continued to soak into the ground around the body. Running up to her Nico swallowed his nausea, kneeling down beside her he studied the wounds. He was surprised the pain hadn't been enough to kill her but she was definitely dead now. Her eyes… or eye, was dull and widened with fear. The socket where her left eye should have been was bleeding, slick with blood.

Nico had seen much worse, but for some reason, looking down at the corpse made him want to throw up. The smell of blood was all he could smell and the still running wounds continued to make the puddle grow around him. The blood had soaked into his jeans, turning them a red color. His hands were sticky with it.

"What happened?" Nico turned and saw Will running towards him.

Standing he turned to face them "I found her like this…" he said "I think the hound must have gotten her."

"Are you okay?" Will asked, running up to him and gently placing his hand on Nico's shoulder "You have some blood on you." He said, panic flickering across his face.

"I'm fine." He looked back down at the corpse "Let's go get someone to get the body." His stomach twisted and he had to look away. Will looked at him and gently placed a hand on his shoulder "Yeah." Let's go."

How was it? I'm still struggling to write in Nico's point of view so please tell me if I should do something different. Thanks for reading! Please review! Oh, and if you don't like graphic scenes you might want to be careful with later chapters, it's going to get worse.


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